Hasan Karayam

Dr. Albert Whittenberg

April 2, 2012

Critical Review

An archival building is a home of our cultural heritage. It should be designed to be a good home

that will help us to create a good environment for extend the life of materials and for people who use or

work at the archives. To do this, we need to avoid common problems that challenge many current

archives.

This paper will explore the importance of designing archival buildings in order to avoid or

minimize problems and threats to preservation that can be associated with them. for example, the initial

design of an archive can minimize the potential impact natural risks such as flood , windstorms, tornados,

and earthquakes. To provide illumination, the most common problems is designing buildings with a

basement, which often flood or a poorly designed roof, which can result in leaking.

I did my practicum (part of my Management of Collection class) with Dr. Martin and Donna

Baker, University Archivist, Albert Gore Research Center. The practicum was about security issues at

repositories and involved visiting several of them on campus, such as the Center for Popular Music,

Special Collections at the walker Library, and the Albert Gore Research Center itself. Noticeably, I found

most natural risks, which challenge the repositories, are associated with the building design of the

repositories, especially the basement problem and potential flooding. On the other hand, I asked staff at

Center for Popular Music and Tennessee Museum State about the design of their buildings-especially-

why they were designed with basements in the buildings and was told that the buildings were not

designed as archives.

Preservation problems have attracted many archivists to write about them professionally, but I do

know why they do not care like these problems. However, designing buildings properly will help resolve

those problems completely. In 1993 Preserving Archives and Manuscripts, by Mary Lynn Ritzenenthaler,

Archivist, National Archives and Records Administration, addressed the preservation problems and

proposes practical solutions to assist archivists in caring for their collections from a sound preservation

perspective. She does great job in her book and it is an important contribution to the archival profession

and really deserves the attention to problems that challenge archivists at existing archives. In chapter five

“Creating a Sympathetic Environment”, Ritzenenthaler elucidates how to make a good environment for

collections, in terms of temperature and relative humidity, air quality, monitoring and detection

equipment, light, housekeeping, security, and fire and water damage. She determines the preservation

problems and their direct causes perfectly and recommended solutions for them. She did not mention the

basic causes and solutions that exist in designing buildings. In other words, she did not point out to the

role of designing building in helping to minimize or even avert natural risks, except for a little discussion

on security of doors and windows in some paragraphs.1

Unlike Ritzenenthaler, Gregory S. Hunter, the author of Developing and Maintaining

Practical Archives recognizes and mentions preservation problems that are related to designing

buildings and their structures “Water damage often happens as a result of a storm that brings

wind and other damage. An engineer should examine the building’s structure to be certain that

the roof, foundation, and other components are able to withstand windstorm damage. Archives in

areas subject to earthquakes face additional requirements for the building structure and such

internal components as shelving.”2 However, Hunter points to the worst problem in designing

building’s basement storage. He especially highlighted “avoiding basement storage as much as

possible.”3 Hunter also recognizes preservation problems within disaster planning. He could have

addressed many of these problems within the chapter on designing building problems, as these 1Mary Lynn Ritzenenthaler, Preserving Archives and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivist,

1993) viii-ix, 64. 2 Gregory S. Hunter, Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2003) 193. 3 Ibid, 194.

are often the original cause and should encourage archivists to rethink the role of building design

in all future archives.

Consequently, most authors who have been written about preservation problems,

especially problems natural risks and climates, have neglected these problems, in terms of their

basic causes and how to avoid them. Most of the authors deal with those problems with the same

terms “Disaster Planning.” But this ignores the role of the building’s design and its role in

potentially solving or at least lessening these problems. A careful attention to the site of archives,

their construction, the standards of their construction, and who is responsible for maintaining the

building can address and reduce most existing archives problems and help ensure appropriate

archives for our cultural heritage in the future.

Fortunately, there are some studies that find their way to advocate this issue perfectly. In

2009 Society of American Archivist (SAA) published handbook which titled Archival and

Special Collections Facilities: Guidelines for Archivists, Librarians, Architects, and Engineers

edited by Michele. F. Pacifico and Thomas P. Wilsted. The authors confirm, “The archival

facility is the common denominator in the preservation of archival and special collection.

Without appropriate facilities and building systems, it is impossible to meet the building’s first-

priority collection preservation.”4 The book deals with problems, which related to designing

building and its construction perfectly. The book is composed of chapters by series of authors

whose work examines the archival facilities from construction through using of materials. SAA

and the authors establish standards for construction of Archival facilities. They explain the role

of building in many term, site selection, site evaluation, site design. The authors do great job to

4 Michele. F. Pacifico and Thomas P. Wilsted, Archival and Special Collections Facilities: Guidelines for Archivists, Librarians, Architects, and Engineers (Society of American Archivists: Chicago, 2009) 2.

develop and reinforcement archival facilities that support the field to avoid many problems

effectively.

Regardless of the insistence some authors to separate this field from public history.

Chuck Wilson, university Archivist, University of California Riverside, who underestimates the

work, especially the issues that are associated with designing buiding and its importance in

archival facilities. He states “chapters, which begin with considerations for the building site and

continue through functional spaces, start with a statement of the rationale for that section. This

followed by individually numbered subsections, e, and g1.2 Site Selection, 1.3 Site Evaluation,

and 1.4 Site Design. This allows the reader to glance at the table of contents and go directly to

the topic of interest… few members the public historian’s community will be involved with the

actual construction of an archival facility and therefore could skip the sections on building site

and building construction.”5 I think archival community encourages and welcome any thought

that participate to develop the field and push it into best facilities for archives and their users.

The field even has impacted by new technologies on planning and developing archives

buildings in different ways. For example, “Making Archives Accessible for People with

Disabilities,” by Dr. Frank H. Serene, Archivist, National Archives and Records Administration,

He argues that, “archives should be prepared to meet and deal with variety of disabilities that

may involve restricted for walking, seeing, speaking, perceiving or understanding, or physical

coordination.” he calls for All construction even older constructions that are being altered,

renovated, refurbished.

Finally, the field is ongoing and able to develop in different ways, especially in term of

archival facilities such as designing buildings and accommodation them to help archives and

5 Michele. F. Pacifico and Thomas P. Wilsted, Archival and Special Collections Facilities: Guidelines for Archivists, Librarians, Architects, and Engineers, reviewed by Chuck Wilson, The Public Historian, Vol 32, No 2 (Spring 2010) 92-94.

their both staff and users to best for preserving our cultural heritage that does not mean separate

the field from public history as many of people thought. The issues of archival facilities really

deserve to pay attention that archivist is responsible to take practical solutions for current

archives and avert those problems in future at all by establish specific rules, which protect

archives from current problems as much as they can.

References

- Gregory S. Hunter, Developing and Maintaining Practical Archives (Neal-Schuman Publishers: New York, 2003)

- Mary Lynn Ritzenenthaler, Preserving Archives and Manuscripts (Chicago: Society of American Archivist, 1993)

- Michele. F. Pacifico and Thomas P. Wilsted, Archival and Special Collections Facilities:

Guidelines for Archivists, Librarians, Architects, and Engineers (Society of American Archivists: Chicago, 2009)

- Michele. F. Pacifico and Thomas P. Wilsted, Archival and Special Collections Facilities: Guidelines for Archivists, Librarians, Architects, and Engineers, reviewed by Chuck Wilson, The Public Historian, Vol 32, No 2 (Spring 2010

- Frank H. Serene, Making Archives Accessible for People with Disabilities,